Today’s Lady News: Dr. Oz Spanked For Naughty Nurses Segment

Time for some triage, Oprah: “The Dr. Oz Show” is in trouble for stereotyping naughty nurses! A November segment featured six women — uh, not nurses — dressed in retro nurse costumes with red lingerie peeking out and high heels as they danced around host Dr. Mehmet Oz. Klassy! A group called The Truth About Nursing called the segment a “sexist caricature of nursing” that further demeans the predominantly female profession. “The Dr. Oz Show” apologized and called it an “attempt at humor.” [AP]

The Catholic Anchor, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, published an article which said Planned Parenthood would be offering gift certificates for abortions. This article got picked up by other news outlets, despite the fact that it’s patently untrue: Planned Parenthood is, in fact, offering coupons for preventative services, such as birth control pills, but the coupons are not available for abortions. [Care2.com]

African-American women die three times more frequently from pregnancy-related complications — like blood clots, hemorrhage or heart problems — than any other racial group, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These startling stats may exist because African-American women are three times more likely than white women to wait until the third trimester to get prenatal care. [The Grio]

Republicans in Iowa are banding together to try and replicate Nebraska’s restrictive late-term abortion law, which has caused its late-term abortion provider (the only one in the country who publicly admits to doing so) to open clinics outside the state. Dr. LeRoy Carhart is planning to open a clinic in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where late-term abortions are allowed to save the life of the mother. Still, some Iowa legislators do not like how “because the definition of health is left to a doctor’s discretion.” (Seriously, that’s what the article says! I can’t make this stuff up!) Nebraska restricted abortions after 20 weeks based on the idea that’s when a fetus begins to feel pain. [Des Moines Register]

“Inspired” by the Facebook movie, Boston University sophomore Justin Doody created RateBU.com, which allows users to post other people’s photos from Facebook and rate them. Should the young women being rated on the site be offended? No way, says Doody. “Please don’t take the site too seriously or as an insult in any way,” reads a disclaimer on RateBU.com. Yeah, because when you’re identified as ugly in public by your peers, you should not take that seriously or be insulted. [Jezebel]

A black woman writes about how her self-esteem about her skin color has affected her dating. (Note: URL has a curse word in it, so may be NSFW.) [Racialicious]

Cathie Black, the CEO of Hearst magazines, was recently named the first female chancellor of the New York City public school system. Some, like Gloria Steinem, have suggested the vocal opposition to Black’s appointment might be based on sexism. (After all, NYC’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, came from the business world as well.) But Black dismissed that sexism theory in a recent interview: “I really don’t [think it's sexism]. [Current chancellor] Joel Klein had a lot of grief when he first started in this job, and he’s been the best chancellor ever in NYC’s history. I have not felt it’s been sexist at all. Am I thrilled to be the first female chancellor? I think it’s a great role model for women to say look at that. I’ve always taken the responsibility of being a first somewhere very seriously. Because I believe if I succeed in a position, then I make that next step a whole lot easier for a whole group of women to think, ‘I can do that.’” [New York Times]

Musician Nick Cave opened up about how he’s “done wonders for the feminist movement,” apparently: “Well, I don’t consider myself not one. I’m not a misogynist, so you can dispense with that. I think I’ve done wonders for the feminist movement. I get criticized for a lot of what I write about, but as far as I’m concerned I’m actually standing up and having a look at what goes on in the minds of men, and I have the authority to talk about it because I’m a man. Women don’t have the authority because they don’t know what goes on in a man’s head, so largely what they say is kind of irrelevant.” Oooookay. [NYMag.com]

Trish Bendix, a blogger at lesbian blog AfterEllen asks, why do straight women assume that dating as a lesbian is easier? I know I’ve been guilty of this. [AfterEllen.com]

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